War and Conflict

Genghis Khan

Who was Tamerlane?

Tamerlane (1336–1405) was a central Asian conqueror who gained power in the late 1300s. His Islamic name was Timur; Tamerlane is the English version. He was a barbaric warrior and a brilliant military leader whose fearsome tactics earned him the name Tamerlane the Terrible. By 1370 he was a powerful warlord whose government was centered in the province of Samarkand, in present-day Uzbekistan. In 1383 he launched a series of conquests that lasted more than 20 years and gained him control of a vast region including Iraq, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Georgia, Russia, and parts of India. He died in 1405, on an expedition to conquer China. His body was entombed in an elaborate mausoleum, which is considered a treasure of Islamic art. After his death, his sons and grandsons fought for control of his dynasty, which remained intact for another hundred years. Tamerlane and his heirs built Samarkand into a great city; in its day it was a center for culture and scholarship in central Asia.